Are you an Amazon fan?
The Alzheimer’s Society is, because Amazon will donate money to support people with dementia. All dementia-friendly Amazon customers need to do is switch to AmazonSmile, select the charity, and 0.5% of the net purchase price of whatever they buy will go to the charity. By the end of this summer the Alzheimer’s Society had received £374,000 – not a small sum.
Sources: Alzheimer’s Society ‘Dementia together’ magazine, August/September 2022 p31 www.smile.amazon.co.uk.
No pressure, then
A study of over 1,000 health and social care workers, conducted by the health & social care tech platform Florence in July 2022, found that almost a third of healthcare workers (28%) admit to feeling overwhelmed at least once a week, with 17% feeling burnt-out every day. 97% believed the cost-of-living crisis has caused further stress or burnout among healthcare professionals. More than half of healthcare workers (56%) admit to working more than 2-3 times a week over their contracted hours, with 7% working overtime every day. Not having enough staff is causing the most pressure in their role (50%), followed by low pay (39%) and high workload (35%).
Source: www.florence.co.uk
Overvaluing those who undervalue sleep
Nearly three-quarters of respondents to a survey of 8,000 UK adults carried out by the charity Nuffield Health report poorer sleep compared to last year. The number of people experiencing insomnia rose to one in four since the pandemic, with many turning to the internet for support. Google searches for ‘insomnia’ soared, with most made in the early hours, around 3am. According to Nuffield Health’s research, 35–44-year-olds get the least sleep, with almost 50% only getting 5-6 hours per night. Only 33% get the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep per night.
Sleep deprivation is believed to cost the UK economy £37 billion a year in lost productivity, with poor sleepers having reduced reaction times and trouble concentrating. They also have an increased risk of having accidents or making costly mistakes. Ultimately, chronically disrupted sleep increases the risk of work absence by 171%. Unfortunately, businesses tend to overvalue individuals who undervalue sleep. Clearly something should be done. News from Nowhere sees a niche market in the making.
Source: https://www.nuffieldhealth.com/healthiernation
Who guards the guards?
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is about undergo major changes to enable the regulator to “work more effectively across the health and care system”. CQC senior staff say that it has engaged with trade unions throughout the process. Five unions disagree. A letter signed by senior officers of Unison, the Royal College of Nursing, Unite, Prospect and the Public and Commercial Services Union has called on the CQC to pause its organisational change and enter into “meaningful discussions” with the unions. As one union member (who wants to remain anonymous) put it: “I have never felt as demoralised, patronised, ignored and devalued as I do now”.
Source: Matt Discombe Coffey warned of ‘significant risk’ posed by CQC restructuring Health Service Journal 23 September 2022
Unhealthy system?
According to the Times a national debate is needed about how health services in Britain can best be organised, accessed and funded in the future to cope with increasing health demands…. “There is little scope for further big injections of funding. Nor is money alone the answer: countries such as Italy, Israel and Australia spend less per capita on healthcare and get better health outcomes. Yet it is hard to see radical reforms emerging if the debate is left to party politics. It is time for a Royal Commission”.
Source: The Times view on future NHS reforms: Unhealthy System Thursday 22nd September
More bad news about maternity care
The Midwifery Continuity of Care (MCoC) model was designed to ensure expectant mothers would be cared for by the same small team of midwives throughout their pregnancy, labour and postnatal care. It makes intuitive sense and many pregnant women like the continuity of care it promises, so it became a target for midwifery services.
There are two flaws in this policy, one contingent on the dire state of the NHS workforce and the other more technical. There are too few midwives to achieve the MCoC target consistently, but according to the Ockenden Report patient safety had been compromised by the unprecedented pressures that MCoC models of care placed on maternity services already under significant strain.
Also the evidence that MCoC models of care make a difference to outcomes for pregnant women is relatively thin. So reaching the MCoC target has been put on hold until more evidence is gathered about its effectiveness and there are enough midwives to meet minimum staffing requirements.
Source: Daily Insight: Scrutiny on the Bounty Health Services Journal 23rd September 2022
Budget erosion
In March 2022 the Department of Health and Social Care in England expected to receive an extra £30.5 billion cash increase over the three years from 2021/22 in its core funding (excluding ringfenced money for Covid-19 measures). This would take its budget from £152.5 billion in 2021/22 to £182.9 billion in 2024/25.
Given new forecasts for inflation, Nuffield Trust analysts John Appleby and Sally Gainsbury estimate that the original £30.5 billion cash increase will be equivalent to around £14 billion by 2024/25 – a cut of just over a fifth to the originally pledged real spending power for the Department.
This cuts the planned budget in 2024/25 from £182.9 billion in cash terms to £166.5 billion in today’s prices.
Source: Higher inflation to erode NHS spending power Nuffield Trust 21/9/2022
Labour’s travails
The recent Labour Conference passed a long and wearying motion against Integrated Care Systems and other bad things – unanimously! A jubilant supporter of the dreary shopping-list wrote to say that if comrades encountered any deviance from this motion in discussions of Labour Party policy, they should remind those involved that this was the unanimous decision of Conference and therefore represents Labour Party policy. Except it doesn’t. Labour Policy is made by the National Policy Forum, not Conference. Fancy not knowing that.
Sources: assorted moles, who will keep us up-to-date as this story unravels
Read more News from Nowhere and articles on the NHS in ERA 3 at http://www.healthmatters.org.uk/